Cheerful Abundance

a field notebook of suburban life

Obsessed with the Holidays

I guess I should preface this upfront by saying I might be kind of a mean girl, at least in my head, because I have a Facebook friend that I don’t actually like, but keep around because I find her complete lack of self-awareness about the funniest thing going these days. White privilege, first world problems, this girl has it all, and her feed is a litany of complaints about how, as we say where I am from, her diamond shoes are too damned tight. And December is the best, because there is so much to complain about. Last year, her stupid husband bought her the wrong tennis bracelet, and she didn’t get a Birkin bag. This year, her selfish sister announced a pregnancy at Thanksgiving, and is totally hogging the spotlight for the holiday season due to her blissful knockedupedness, which I think we all know was carefully timed so as to ruin the holidays for everyone else. Obviously. But the biggest tragedy of them all was announced on December 1st, and two weeks later, at least one post a day crops up about this horrible travesty.

You see, my not-a-friend, who we shall call Wilma, carefully orchestrates a special Christmas theme for her holiday decor each year. These themes are serious, like, Gladys Leeman “Can I? I’m Amer-I-Can!” serious. But some bitch – and I am quoting here – some bitch stole her theme this year. And she doesn’t want to name names, but it is her sister in law, who I think we all know is just horribly jealous of Wilma. Wilma’s theme for this year was, “Delightfully Frosty Christmas”, and then up pops the super-jelus sister in law with her “snowman” theme, which is obviously just a big old rip off, and amateur hour compared to Wilma’s carefully planned and executed theme.

I wish I could spend Xmas dinner with this family. For real.

I love holiday themes for decorating, but I like them a little offbeat. We used to do “Nantucket Xmas”, which was all these adorable fabric and wood boat ornaments, garlands of stars and blue lights, and then a bunch of gorgeous tin alien space ship ornaments from Restoration Hardware. Because I like to imagine sailors looking up at the night sky and seeing something a little unexplainable. I don’t know really – I just thought it was randomly funny to mess with something as designery as “Nantucket Christmas” like that, and of all the ornaments on my tree, these silly space ships make people laugh the most, which is kind of the point.

The holidays should not be serious. I think that is why the combo of red and green together bother me so much. So, so serious and heavy. Add some gold, and Lord, I am smothered in the Seriousness of the Occasion. I like it when people take a lighter touch, use colours you don’t expect, add a little whimsy in, keep the holidays a little lighter, a little brighter, and a little more fun. Which is why I am loving Pink Christmas!

This tree is so simple, and the wrapping is as well. I love how this holiday decor isn’t taking itself too seriously, especially next to that super formal mantel.

This is full out crazy pink, and I love it, too. That is a commitment right there, to one’s theme. Love, love it.

Shiny, shiny.

This has me thinking to next Xmas. How easy would it be to trace patterns onto plain coloured balls with glue, and then glitter them? So easy.

My inner Martha Stewart is a gay man.

I don’t even ….. I don’t even have words for how much I love this. It is the ubiquitous Xmas ball wreath, the one I see on a million crafty DIY sites, but done in shades of pink and silver, with a mix of new and antique balls [ed. note: antique balls! My inner 12 year old boy is dying at this] and then just a few random aqua balls for contrast. Love, love.

How gorgeous would a pink holiday party be?

Grown up wrapping paper!

You could have so much fun wrapping gifts if you picked non-traditional colours. I would love to get a present that looked like this!